Waterfall adventure kills tourists

HANOI, 29 February 2016: Three British tourists found dead at the foot of a waterfall in Vietnam had slipped into a gorge and were swept by strong currents over the 20 metre falls, the director of a tour company told AFP Saturday.

The bodies of two women and one man were retrieved Friday by scores of aid workers who scrambled down cliffs abutting the tiered waterfalls outside of Dalat, a city nestled in Vietnam’s central highlands.

The Datanla falls are a popular spot for adventure tourists, with opportunities to rappel on the rocks and luge around the jungle park.

Le Viet Luc, the director of a company that runs tours to the site, said the trio was exploring one of the area’s seven waterfalls without proper permission from the agency. Strong currents swept them over the falls ledge.

“They fell into a stream above the waterfall and drowned after being hit by violent waters,” he said, adding that their bodies were transferred to Ho Chi Minh City late Friday night.

The British Embassy in Hanoi released a statement on behalf of the family of the man, Christian Sloan, who local media reported to be 25 years old.

“He was a very popular young man, formerly in the Royal Navy, who had many, many friends not just locally but around the world. He lived for life,” the statement said.

The embassy declined to release the names of the two women, ages 18 and 25, who entered the country together earlier this month, according to state media.

Vietnam and its neighbours in Southeast Asia are travel magnets for young backpackers, but accidents are frequent amid weak law enforcement and scant safety oversight at many of the region’s adventure travel sites.